A Frenchman suspected of espionage and links to an opposition group considered “terrorist” has been arrested by Equatorial Guinean authorities in Bata, the country's economic capital, state television TVGE reported on Wednesday.
This oil-producing, authoritarian Central African state, ruled by President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo since 1979, is regularly criticized for its restrictions on civil liberties.
According to TVGE, the Frenchman, described as a former soldier, was arrested in Rio Campo, in Littoral Province, near the border with Cameroon.
Holding a tourist e-visa, he reportedly first spent four days in Malabo, the former capital located on Bioko Island, before traveling to Cameroon and then returning to Equatorial Guinea via the land border.
According to the broadcaster, Equatorial Guinean authorities reported that he was in possession of maps of the mainland region and sketches of the borders with Cameroon and Gabon, particularly around the Ntem River and the localities of Kie-Osi and Modoun.
Rio Campo, where the man was apprehended, hosts a detachment of the Equatorial Guinean Navy opposite a Cameroonian Navy post on the Ntem River estuary.
Authorities also claimed to have found evidence of telephone communications with a number attributed to Salomon Abeso Ndong, described as a member of the Coalition for the Restoration of a Democratic State (CORED), an exiled opposition movement that Malabo officially designated a “terrorist group” in September.
According to TVGE, a reward of €1.5 million is reportedly being offered for the capture and repatriation of Salomon Abeso to Equatorial Guinea.
The arrested Frenchman “remains in custody until the reasons for his presence are clarified,” the broadcaster said.
